Friday 9 April 2004, 6 pm ABC1

Kalkadoon Man

Black Tracker is a 1990s ABC documentry about the late police officer and tracker Sergeant Riley produced by the late Michael Riley. At its wrap up there is a beautiful piece of classsical music which then lasts throughout the creidts. The name of the music is not in the credits. ...

Kalkadoon Man is a unique documentary film which accompanies one of Australia’s most respected musicians, William Barton, on a 10-day quest to make a didgeridoo using traditional methods passed down from his father, uncle and other tribal members of the Kalkadunga nation.

Transcript

Throughout the journey William shares his thoughts, stories and compositions which give a rare insight into the life of this young Kalkadoon descendant trying to resolve his place in the contemporary world as a passionate musician dedicated to the traditional cultural values instilled so deeply within him.

Using an axe, a piece of wire and his knowledge of the land, William takes the audience through the hot landscape of his tribal lands in the Mount Isa region to find the right tree and craft the wood into a didgeridoo. Watching William working on the instrument, as he once watched his Kalkadoon elders, the audience gains an insight into the art of making the didgeridoo.

As he works, William explains the spirituality and artistry of professional didgeridoo playing to give a greater understanding of the meaning and significance of the didgeridoo in traditional and contemporary performances.

The film climaxes with a performance by William in the heart of his tribal lands. He performs a dynamic composition written especially for this journey.

Director: Brendan Fletcher

Producer: Chris Newling, Screenland

Transcript of the Program

RACHAEL MAZA, PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to Message Stick. I'm Rachael Maza. Today we bring you a special documentary called 'Kalkadoon Man' about musician William Barton on a 10-day quest to make a didgeridoo using traditional methods passed down from his father, uncle and other tribal members of the Kalkadunga nation. And if you'd like more information on any of the programs, check out the Message Stick site on abc.net.au/message. And I hope you enjoy 'Kalkadoon Man'.

WILLIAM BARTON: My name's William Barton. I'm a descendant of the Kalkadunga tribe of Far North-Western Queensland. This is a story about me and my instrument - the didgeridoo. I've always wanted to make a didgeridoo myself using wood from my father's country. So that's what this journey is about, really. I'm 21 years old and I've been a professional didgeridoo artist since the age of 12. This country, the Mount Isa region, is where I call home. Well, the didgeridoo - it is a very deep and spiritual instrument. And it is used in a lot of tribal ceremonies. But in this modern day and age, I like to go out of that circle and bring the didgeridoo to a whole new audience. I've adapted my style of playing the instrument so I can play with symphony orchestras, classical musicians. Well, I was taught to play the didgeridoo traditionally by my uncle, Arthur Petersen, when I was about seven or so. And he was a great didg player of the Waanyi and Lardle tribes. I guess in Aboriginal lore, the old fellas pick out the potential didg players when they're just young boys. I was lucky to be that chosen one from the Kalkadunga mob.

FOOTAGE OF WILLIAM INSPECTING A THIN TREE TRUNK, PUTTING HIS EAR TO THE WOOD AND TAPPING IT WITH AN AXE. HE THEN INSERTS A WIRE THROUGH THE TRUNK. HE CUTS DOWN THE TREE:

WILLIAM BARTON: Yeah, look at this one, eh? Termites have done a pretty good job on this for us. It's a nice, solid piece of wood. Certainly hollow all the way through. Judging by the diameter and the length, I'd say that this one would be in the key of maybe B or A, to me. We'll camp for another few days here on Calton Hills station. Then we'll work the area between Mount Isa and Cloncurry. We'll just have to watch ourselves, though, 'cause it's wet season right now and there's a lot of rain around, eh. I play guitar as a little bit of relaxation as well as self-discovery. I like the difference of working with a contemporary instrument and I just like to be always learning - whether it's learning more rhythms on the didg, or fingerpicking techniques on the guitar. I just like to continue my musical journey and then share that with other people. I started working on a song four or five years ago when my dad was still alive. And I'm working on finishing that right now. It's sort of like a tribute to him and, uh, the Kalkadoon people, I guess. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finish it, but I hope this journey will help shape it. We used to travel through here with my mum and dad when I was much younger. And this place is just like it was then - quiet, peaceful and relaxing. This is also an area of great significance for the Kalkadunga people because in the '90s, the whole of Calton Hills station was reacquired by the Kalkadunga people so that we could own and control this country forevermore. And it was actually my mum and dad who spent years in business and legal battles to get this land back. So now people like me could come back here and do what I am doing, thanks especially to the efforts of my dad, a proud Kalkadunga man himself. I'm finding it pretty hard to leave this place - old Gunpowder Creek. It makes me think about my family a lot and how the old people used to live around here. When Dad passed away, we had a bush funeral here on Calton Hills station, like a good old bushie. There were two ringers on horses leading him down the aisle. It was just a great ceremony and we had it just down the road from here 'cause he always said he wanted to be buried on the land he fought so hard to get back. I'll probably call by his site and see him on the way out, anyway.

FOOTAGE OF THUNDERSTORM, HEAVY DOWNPOUR:

WILLIAM BARTON: Mate! Jeez, it bloody sprinkled down a bit last night. Pushed the car out of the bog three times, crossed about five rivers. Lost half our dinner that night too and half our sleep. That's the wet season for you, I guess. Lake Julius - where we are now - is right in the heart of Kalkadunga country. It wasn't too far from here where they found my great-grandmother wandering around in the bush. Way back in the...I guess, mid-1800s, she was found out in the bush by a Scottish family, the Macleans, after one of the massacres. They found this little Aboriginal girl just wandering around out in the bush - no parents, no family, no nothing. And the Macleans, they took her in, looked after her, and basically reared her up. She became part of their family - Annie Maclean, they called her. When she grew up and the couple that found her got old, it was her daughter that returned the favour and looked after them till they passed away. She was my grandmother, Daisy Barton.

FOOTAGE OF WILLIAM'S ROAD JOURNEY, SETTING UP CAMP, PREPARING WOOD TO MAKE A DIDGERIDOO:

WILLIAM BARTON: This is the place we used to call Sun Rock, which is a pretty special place for the Kalkadoon people. We used to come here a lot, show the people the cultural sites around the Mount Isa area. In the wall, there's the old Kalkadoon figures. They created the work by crushing red ochre - which is a rock in this area - and mixing it with human blood at times. Sometimes they'd get the sap from the bloodwood tree, also. So it's hard to say how long it's been there. It hasn't faded much in my lifetime. And right down the middle, you can see this shape of a snake, which is very significant because the snake is the totem spirit of the Kalkadunga people. The Kalkadoons were also known to be a fierce fighting tribe. They put up a really savage fight for this land, and to this day, there's even a jet plane named after the Kalkadunga people - the Kalkadunga warrior. My dad, he met one of them old Kalkadoon warriors - Wild Harry. He was one of the last warriors from the big old fight, eh, at Battle Mountain

. And this old fella, he told my dad the story of how he escaped getting killed by diving under the water. He was breathing through one of them water reeds. He crossed over to the other side of the river and escaped from the massacre site. This old fella would have been in his 80s or so. And my dad was about 12 or 14. And they called him Wild Harry. He was a real proper old Kalkadoon warrior from way back. Yeah, I played at my uncle's funeral - at the old fella's funeral who taught me, Uncle Arthur Petersen. And I wasn't immediately asked to do that. But I wanted to do it as a thankyou to him for teaching me the didgeridoo.

I was given the special privilege by his family of holding onto his didgeridoo, which is quite a rare honour in Aboriginal culture. Because when an old songman passes away, they usually break the didg and bury it or even throw it out into the fire, just to silence the sound forever of that old songman. And what I remember so clearly from my uncle is him telling me that the didgeridoo is a language. It is a speaking language. And like any language, it's something that you've got to learn over many months and many years. It's got to be a part of you and what you do.

When we used to go out bush with my uncles and that, eh, they would teach me about making didges and boomerangs or whatever. But it wasn't, like, you know, teaching, like in the school sense where you go to a normal school. You just gotta watch. You...you don't say anything. You just learn. You be silent. And when the time comes, you did it. In fact, there is no word for 'teach' in the Kalkadunga language. I use the word 'guntha', which is our word for 'inner spirit'.

Spinifex wax is created when the little black ants strip the spinifex for its wax and build up their nest just beneath the ground or sometimes above it. I suppose they just live in the wax and make a good sort of nest out of it. The wax is, you know, perfect to fill cracks that form in the wood. Once you've heated the wax and it softens, it dries and plugs the holes nicely. Spinifex wax is also good for clogging up a petrol tank on a car if you, you know, got a crack in your petrol tank. Well, it seems like a long time ago since I cut that old gidji tree down at Calton Hills station.

And as the sun sets on day 10 of this journey, I'm gonna finish off by performing my first piece on this instrument. It'll be a composition about the journey we've been on to create this didgeridoo. Dad told me when he was a kid he used to wag school and that and go down to the riverbed in Mount Isa, which is where the old people were. And he'd sit down there by the fire while they told their old stories and that sort of thing. I know those times he spent with them old people, listening to those stories, really meant a lot to Dad. I guess what I'm doing is just giving back. Giving back to my culture and my people.

Because I was given something when I was very young. And like the old fellas who taught me years ago, I'm just passing it on.